LG: No plans to ditch G5's modular design for now
The company reiterates that it will not scrap the G5's swappable approach (and the phone's accompanying accessories) for now at least.
LG is sticking to its guns.
When the company's G5 flagship phone debuted in April, it made waves with its unique modular-like design. Its removable battery can be swapped out from the phone's bottom chin, and other accessories like a camera grip and a digital-to-analog audio converter, can be attached to give the handset additional functionality.
But due to less-than-stellar sales of the phone and its accompany accessories, the company was rumored to abandon that approach, according to the Korean news site ETNews. Instead, the phone's successor, presumably called the G6, was expected to take on a more traditional design.
On Monday, however, LG reiterated it has made "no such decision" to discontinue the G5's modular structure.
"We always look at multiple smartphone designs/features in the development phase," wrote LG spokesman Ken Hong in an email. "The green light is given to the final design only weeks before we make an announcement... As of today, all this talk of what we may or may not do is speculative, at best."
This is consistent with what Hong told CNET earlier in September. During the G5's launch, LG also unveiled a community page and set up a conference in San Francisco to help develop more software and hardware kits that would accommodate the phone's swappable design.
First published October 21, 2:58 p.m. PT
Update, October 24 at 11:54 a.m.: Adds comment from LG.